The bus journey and the first day in Tamale

Written on the 2^nd of July

Yesterday was a tiring day. We had to be at the bus stop at 6 and left by bus at 7.15am. The journey ended up taking us 15 hours instead of 12. Half this journey ended up being on a mud road with a lot of holes in it. Therefore we were swerving around them when possible and if impossible we had to sit tight, those were definitely not the parts of the bus journey where you could sleep. We had 3 stops of 15 minutes during those 15 hours and at the 2^nd stop I had my ipod attached to my cardigan. When I got back on the bus it wasn’t there and I was certain (as I’d checked) it wasn’t in my bag. We got out and looked at the spot I stood for most of the break. It wasn’t there so I asked people around. One man said that he saw one of the people from my bus pick it up from the ground and afterwards he went back on the bus. So Hudu, one of the coordinators, asked the whole bus if they’d seen it etc and that a man had seen one of them pick it up. No one knew of it. Although I didn’t want to, I ended up getting quite upset over it, however long story cut short... I found it in my bag in a side pocket this morning. How embarrassing... But I’m happy at least haha

At the last stop I needed to go to the bathroom.. well I can’t exactly call it a bathroom. I ended up paying 0.2 cedi to take some water and newspaper with you, to then stand on a step and like bend to do your business on the lower tiles behind you. To add the experience, you didn’t have your own cubicles so you were with other women on that step. Just lovely..

Throughout the whole bus journey the bus driver was playing really loud soap series on the tv. The Ghanaians love them. Us foreigners just laughed at how bad the acting was, it was so funny! We saw some eye opening things on the way down, families that sleep in the littlest of huts in the middle of nowhere without running water or electricity. When we arrived in Tamale, Frederick, the main coordinator from Volunteering Solutions, was waiting for us.  He told me I was going to the volunteering house and the other 2 new volunteers, who are a couple, would be staying with a host family. I told him I’d been told I would be in a host family, but they’d decided for me that it would be nicer with me on my own to be in the volunteering house. I definitely didn’t like the way they’d decided that for me as, because there’s a choice, I think they should have talked to me about it and asked me. But anyways, a bit later I arrive at the volunteer’s house and there were 6 volunteers there already. 4 of them stay in a different house, in Fred’s house 2 houses away from the house I’m staying in. The two girls that are staying in my house are absolutely lovely and around 18-19 years old and we got along straight away. None of the volunteers are staying as long as I am, but most of them are staying until August and a few more are still to come. I felt welcome straight away and they were both meant to have been in host families as well and were also frustrated at first, but they said how nice it was to immerse in the culture throughout the day but that u can just talk to other westerners at night especially if you’ve had a hard day. Especially to just talk about how unorganised they are. Their main quote is ‘This is Ghana’, if you question something and it’s just like yes but us westerners aren’t used to that and we’d just like to know what the plan is for tomorrow. But we try to be as patient as we can be.

This morning I experienced the shower. It’s basically a little room with a drain and where a bucket is. You get water from the tap outside to fill the bucket and then use that water to wash yourself. As the water isn’t freezing and the outside temperature is above 25 degrees, it’s not bad at all. You just need to take your time and at least when you do e.g. your hair, meanwhile you’re not freezing your butt off because of the temperature outside  (or in the room).

Afterwards Hudu and I went with the other two volunteers that arrived with me, Vicky and Colm, into Tamale to explore. We bought mainly water, as the tap water isn’t drinkable, and I bought some biscuits. One big 1.5 litre bottle of water is 40p. Absolutely nothing!  We went to a restaurant after that to have some lunch, I had a beautiful fruit salad and following that, we got a lesson about the culture etc. I got to hear that the class I’ll be teaching is for kids that never went to school and who wouldn’t be able to go to school if it wasn’t for Volunteering Solution as they built it. The room has now been blown off though, because of the heavy rain fall, so I won’t be teaching when it’s raining. I’ll be donating the money that some of my family donated, to the roof, but if anyone else would like to donate then please let me know as any money is welcome!

Tomorrow I’ll be joining Fred and Vicky and Colm with their host family at church, which apparently goes on for about 3 hours. Wow. After that I get to relax and prepare myself for my first class on Monday, which will be when the real work starts.

 the volunteering house

 some huts along the way

 The road we were driving on

 The girls put one of their headscarves on me

 Our beds

 the 'bathroom'